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Have you met Google Glass?

10:46 PM

It is the year 2013, and Google is not about to let us forget it. The world is abuzz with news releases from the company's latest tech venture: Google Glass. This "wearable" computer is basically a smart phone -- sitting on your face. And while Google Glass isn't going to help you see (protocols are in development for a future version that can be fit over prescription glasses), these glasses are letting us see into our possible future.

Google Glass--no glasses here! Just a glasses frame and
instead of lenses, there is a small projector piece above the
right eye. Photo via theverge.com

What can Google Glass do?

Well, we can only begin to imagine. At this point, it is imagined as a wearable smart phone with voice activated commands and a projected visual screen. While wearing the Glass, you can send a message, check the weather, and get directions, all just by asking a question. You can record video and take a picture-- perhaps as easily as just winking to trigger the snap! As such, the privacy concerns are mounting day by day and Google is facing as much early criticism as it is excitement for the future Google Glass may bring. Google is also enlisting companies to design "apps" for the device for new and innovative uses, creatively called "Glassware." While the product isn't available for consumers yet, early design models are selling for $1500 and are making the publicity rounds (see the Today Show spot here).

Since Google Glass is really just a frame without lenses, Google does plan on releasing models that would be compatible over real prescription glasses. They may even partner with companies like Warby Parker to make Google Glass-ready sunglasses or prescription ophthalmic frames. Early design protocols seem to be focused on increasing style so that the Glass looks less like a headset for basement-dwelling Warcraft gamers circa 2007, and more like a fashion statement for the 21st century that Verne or Orwell might have imagined for us. Only this isn't science fiction -- this is just the next generation of tech that may be as ubiquitous as your cell phone in five more years.